m1905 bayonet question

I just purchased an m1905 bayonet to go with my 1918 m1903 Springfield. it is an RIA manufactured in 1918 and has the 16" blade but it has plastic grips. it also has the m3 scabbard. I'm pretty sure that when these were being shortened for the m1 they replaced the wood grips with the plastic. My question is if this is true, why does this one have a full length blade? I know that the guy who owned it previously never messed with the grips so could this have been done during re-arsenaling?
-thanks

The US Navy rebuilt them full length.

As with this one.

mine doesn't have any navy markings on it. could it still be navy?

I don't think the navy marked the bayonets. Just the scabbards.

I believe if thy needed a rebuild, they would get the whole thing done. Refinish, new scales and usually the scabbard would be hashed so it wanted replacement. If not, then nothing happened...

the only marking on the scabbard is a very large flaming bomb with U.S marked in it

between the wars and in the leadup to WWII the older M1905s went thru rearsenal , and were fitted with new scales as required , yours would be one , the scabord was issued seperately but with the bayonet , its also WWII vintage , in the 1918 period the M1905 and M1910 scabords were in use , in spite of the photo's look , both blades have walnut scales ,

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...41da1e14-1.jpg

This one's mine. Walnut scales and parkerized correctly because of the date of manufacture. New scabbard because of need...I expect.

I only wish I could find a pair of the walnut scales th replce the ill fitting bakalite replacements on mine.

They show up on Ebay and the cronies from time to time. Good ones cost real money too...

Bid on a couple of sets. Your definition of real money is in line with mine. Best hope may be a beater,cutdown, cut up with wooden grips.

Good luck on that one. If I hadn't stumbled on an acquaintance with that 1905 for sale at a gunshow, and a friend thinking it was a repro...I'd still be hunting.

did the marines use a full length bayonet because they are technically part of the navy.

Those were what was available in the beginning. A hold over from the old days. Once user reports came in about them being too long, they sought a way to fix it. First was cutting them down and second was shorter blades. Just using up old equipment.

you may get lucky and find a reasonably priced bayonet with walnut scales but its not common , and you could get one of the cheap repros and canalize the scales but i suspect you will be disappointed in the fit of these as well ,

im thinking you should accept what you have or buy what you want , after all we only get these once , there are many places to seek out what you want , i have some links ill offer if you PM me ,

On the wooden Model 1905 bayonet scales, the early pre WW1 scales have 11 cutter passes per inch while the later scales have 7 cutter passes per inch. Later replacement scales are marked with a drawing number inside, C64036 on the right grip and C64037 on the left grip.

I knew there were different numbers of ridges but didn't know how it worked. I've never seen the number inside. I'm guessing it's stamped not hand written? Like a Butcher bayonet I just had apart? Hand written assembly numbers...

The drawing number inside each (post WW1) grip is stamped and difficult to find and I am sure grips or as the collectors call them scales were mixed during rebuilding.

the full length plastic were fitted till 1942 the cut down M1 versions started 42-43 and the M1s were made 43 on